Pocket Doors and Pocket Gardens

Thursday, December 8, 2010

Already 8 AM here on the mountain but the thermometer has not budged since 5:15 when I booted up. It's still 5.3° and that makes it the coldest night so far. The drop in temperature, thick frost and snowflakes yesterday afternoon make everything a dull white this morning as if someone took a bakery shaker and shook confectioners sugar everywhere. It's nice but I'm sure the critters and birds would like to see some sunshine. Apparently Karl the Wonder Dog has a built-in barometer as he refuses to budge too!

When fall clean up is finished, my daily activity turns to working in our 70 acre forest. It's too big a piece of land to set one-man goals to get it all spruced up but I work away at maintaining woods roads and cutting firewood for subsequent years. Just when I think I am making progress, a big storm comes along and downed trees make me redo previous accomplishments. Last week's record winds made me take several steps back but actually the winds brought down some dead trees that needed to fall but might well have been dangerous to approach and cut.

With winter, Gail and I can read more, and catch up on needed correspondence. We also watch television shows on what else--gardening-- and garden design--but also on home renovation and restoration. When you have grown up in New England and have an appreciation for anything old, you know a lot of unusual things including what a pocket door is. A recent show discussed single and double pocket doors which slide from inside the adjacent wall(s) providing privacy when needed. No traditional door knobs on pocket doors but interesting pulls and locks. They can be opened without taking up floor space when "free and open" is the desire. The show reminded me of efficiency of space and that led to thoughts of smaller garden spaces--pocket gardens.

The world of gardening continues to change as society influences what is "in" and what people have time, finances and space for. Everything seems to go full cycle and the gardens of my youth which were acres large and provided food for the next year, have shrunk to lot sized gardens, some under 100 square feet in total, next door to a condominium entrance door. As scale diminishes, creativity prevails.

I like to meet gardeners who have downsized their available space but still want to have an eye catcher of a garden. My friend Marie from Barre, Vermont moved to a condo and immediately missed her gardens at her previous house. She worked through the condo administration and gained permission to landscape the woodlands adjacent to her property and her gardening happiness continues, challenged but undaunted. I'm really proud of her persistence and what her efforts lent to her neighborhood. She is an excellent gardener with great color, texture and contrast skills.

So my thought for today is that the throes of winter is a good time to plan pocket gardens when you have or must downsize. I suggest that what you might already have started is a good place to rethink and continue on. Here's an example from one of our old gardens.

Years ago I began a shade garden off Peacham Pond Road. Before we began our new nursery, that garden drew thousands of visitors per year and offered some good ideas for gardeners and landscapers. This picture is a small segment of that garden which I suggest could be the start of a pocket garden where space is limited. Center image are three hostas beginning with Just So at the bottom, June in the middle and On the Marc at the top. To the right are some big leaves of a mature Hosta Fortunei Hyacinthina. The hostas are surrounded by tall native ferns which allow the hostas to be the attention receiving accents.

If this was your pocket garden, there are lots of possibilities. Any of the dark actaeas, Hillside Black Beauty, Pink Spike, James Compton or Brunette, each maturing at about 4.5 feet, planted towards the back, would provide some vertical to the design. More towards the middle or side, a painted fern or a maidenhair fern (both pictured just below) could replace one of the natives to provide varying color and texture. A few Japanese primroses could be planted next to a stone accent and then a couple different trollius could be added to draw out the hosta coloration from June through most of July here.

Obviously these suggestions are geared to zone 4 Vermont. The example I want to convey is that a pocket garden, as small as it may be, can offer the gardener and her visitors a fun assortment of plants in a small space. With real winter almost here, and while were talking pocket doors and pocket gardens, become a "garden idea pick pocket" and while you are reading gardening magazines and perusing seed catalogs, scratch out some ideas on paper and see how nice a collection you can put together. I'll bet you will be surprised!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where only chickadees and a single nuthatch keep me and a cup of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters hazelnut company this morning.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
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Art in the Garden

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

58°, windless, with light sprinkles that started again. Karl the Wonder Dog just returned from his second walk of the morning and seems disgusted that my empty oatmeal bowl is still empty. I'm wondering how it got to be 9 o'clock and I haven't pushed back from the computer yet.

Two weeks ago I was in Maine enjoying some nice gardens. One was the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden in Boothbay. I have visited there annually since it opened and it's a pleasure to see the changes. I especially enjoy the art that is incorporated and wanted to mention a couple links for those who haven't or cannot visit this fine place.

On my first visit several years back I was struck by Dale Chihuly's glass sculpture in the Slater Forest Pond. I had seen his work in Seattle before and kept going back to this little pond to see glass like I had not seen in the east before. This year I spent more time with some work by Squidge Liljeblad Davis Here are four examples that seem so simple but offer a complexity of emotion that works so well with a garden setting. I stop and stare and hope others don't see me staring until I walk away and turn back to see unknown visitors doing the same.

Maine has a large number of incredible artists and Falmouth curator June LaCombe has done a superb job showcasing their art at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. I remember the first time I approached the gates of the garden and how struck I was by the animal sculptures of Wendy Klemperer. To see a life size elk or a howling wolf makes me see through the sculpture and visualize the same creature alive and moving through the gardens. Check out Klemperer's site and you'll find some examples that have been displayed at CMBG.

Art will have to become a memory now as I have parts of the next three days to finish work at the nursery, plant the last 3 katsura trees, a dozen lilacs and a couple-three nine barks. And I absolutely cannot forget to plant a big pot of Hosta Empress Wu and some odds and ends of pulmonaria. There may be a warm day or two in early November but more often than not when it snows the end of October, the snows is with us here when the calender displays a new year.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where Gail is making a carrot cake for tonight's Hardy Plant Club potluck while 6 turkey's have climbed the bank and are looking in my office window.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
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Botanical Gardens

Saturday. September 12, 2009

Half an hour before high tide here at Wells, Maine. The water is about 50 feet from the seawall right now and is approaching closer with each new wave. Surfers are in their glory with the tides as the water is the warmest it has been in 100 years. Swimmers don't want to leave the water either. The afternoon rain kept many away but just after the dinner hour, people in raincoats, some with umbrellas, many walking dogs, will try to squeeze out a little more of New England summer as we know it.

Our time in Boothbay at the Maine Coastal Botanical Gardens was in full sun and pleasurable. The brightness made taking pictures difficult with my limited skills but the pictures should help those of you who have not visited to gain an appreciation for what has been built. This botanical majesty experienced a sixteen year evolution that culminated in its June 2007 grand opening. 126 acres were purchased in 1996 that included 3600 feet of tidal shore frontage. In 2005, another 120 acres were added as a gift from the Pine Tree Conservation Society. This is a massive project and a great tribute to it originators, its Board of Directors and its benefactors.

The Visitor Center pictured above is 9500 square feet small. It offers a garden cafe, a gift shop, lots of educational space and a library. Currently there is an outstanding art exhibit on display.

As we parked this year, I was instantly reminded of my visit in 2006, when I pulled in by a mass planting of a daylily named Patio Parade planted under a single October Glory maple tree. That year was more dry than this so the tree leaves displayed oranges and bright reds. This year the leaves only show a hint of color. The mass flower planting format is repeated at MCBG and is one I have begun to employ in my own gardens. Large blocks of the same plant bloom with an obvious presence that always begs "What's the name, what's the name?"

As soon as you pay your admission, you're directed out the side doors to the front lawn. This is a spacious lawn surrounded by flowers and paths. To the right is the demonstration vegetable garden outside the cafe end of the facility. A prominent metal sculpture of a feeding elk bends forward near some miscanthus that waves silvery in the sun. Wendy Klemperer is the sculptor here and her "reimagined" work of deer, elk, wolves, foxes and even a quilled porcupine greet you, first on the entrance road and later throughout the gardens.


As you walk the perimeter of the lawn, a fascinating piece of stainless steel floats in the wind. This is named "Wind Orchid" by George Sherwood who calls his work quite appropriately, "kinetic sculpture".



The sculptural work of Klemperer, Sherwood and many others at MCBG is curated by June LaCombe SCULPTURE. It provides thoughtful mystery and enthusiasm to the gardens, and of course, their visitors.

As you look to the right entering the lawn, the horizon suggests the presence of the ocean. As your eyes move closer, ahead and to the left, the flowers become more and more awesome. I had the opportunity to see these gardens in their infancy and this week's viewing left me just speechless.

Stone work is everywhere as walkways, stone art work and hard scape abound. The hardness of the stone softens the gardens through mass, design and texture and each piece beckons the visitor to walk on and see more.

Rudbeckias, eupatoriums, actaeas and many grasses, some as tall as 8-9 feet, draw attention and suggest "You can build like this too!" Every garden makes its own statement and over time the message is more clear.

As Gail and I sat with Alex within the gazebo, surrounded by the fragrance of countless roses, we shared praise for the spectacular gardens we had just started to explore. The Maine Coastal Botanical Gardens is certainly a special place!


I welcome comments about your visits and even this virtual visit which I hope has been successful for you. More gardens and garden thoughts soon!


Writing from Wells, Maine where the tide retreats with a pleasant thunder.


George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm